Stuffing & handsewing

I'm a real Friday loving girl, the weekend is about to start, I deliver the eggs in the village, Fridays just buzz along nicely. Today, I decided to stuff and handsew some of this weeks production, seeing as there was a rather large pile of it mounting up.

We open up for the summer two weeks today, as usual I'm leaving it all to the last minute! The studio looks like a bomb has hit it and needs a major tidy and move around, there's still pine needles on the floor from the Christmas tree...........the next couple of weeks are going to be busy.

Seeing as I feel I know my customers quite well I decided to start making lots of what I know sells well, so lavender bags were the order of the day today in the handsewing. Next week I'll get making some other new pieces, which I'm rather looking forward to.

We're off for the weekend, back down the road to visit friends and family, we're both looking forward to it as it'll be our last weekend off for a while. For the next few weeks it'll be all hands on deck, literally......Gregg has started on the deck outside the studio and has promised me it'll be finished for us opening back up in May.......fingers crossed eh!

Happy weekend. I'm off to put eggs in boxes. xx

Christmas scents

Much stuffing of Christmas hearts and pillows has been done this weekend, so the herb jar has been hit fairly hard. A mix of cinnamon, cloves and rosemary, with a little clementine essential oil added too. The best bit is definitely bashing up the cinnamon sticks, very good for anger management............

This year our little Christmas hearts are made from locally handloomed linen with an embroidered snowflake in red stitching, and stuffed with said herbs. All we need now is jingle bells playing in the background.............

Happy Monday.

L xx

Glorious September

Today has been a beautiful day. While walking the dogs at the back of seven this morning there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The promise of a good dry Autumn day, with just a little nip in the air. I am being inspired by the hedgerows just now, rosehips, rowans, seed heads and the promise of brambles to be picked in a few weeks time. The thought of apple and bramble crumble makes my mouth water......

Some local handloomed linen was washed up today and dried on the line so I'm looking forward to using that some time soon. The sewing list is rather huge at the moment as stock is rediculously low, with Christmas just around the corner I'm starting to panic slightly.....

It's just started raining here so I'm off to sit by the fire and sew up hearts!

Some exciting news for tomorrow, but I'll keep you waiting ;)

L xx

Juxtaposition

I'm loving the fact that we do things in a bit of on old fashioned way around here, yet to be able to keep up with everyone else we have to be state of the art too.

So, if you pay cash or cheque it gets stored in this lovely old piece of kit,

or if you choose to pay with plastic we can still oblige :)

It also means we can take orders over the phone now so it's another step in the right direction.

Organisation isn't my number one skill but I do get there eventually.

Off to sew in the studio and work on some more Christmas samples, you'll maybe get a sneaky peak later in the week.

L x

The perfect working day

Today has been the perfect working day. The sun has shone, while out walking Chissie this morning I stopped to let the sun beat down on my face for five minutes, that always sets me up well for the day.

A bit of sewing was done this morning, then a friend popped round for a quick cuppa, some cake and some gardening chat. Photos were taken of said sewing done this morning and a wander round the garden to see what else was in need of some camera love.

Seeing as it was such a lovely afternoon, the wellies stayed on and some gardening was done.

A bed was cleared ready for planting and some seeds were sown, sweet peas and cornflowers. I've come in rosy cheeked and full of fresh air.

Here's a picture of Mr. Bud cat giving my wellies some love and the next one is of him watching the world go by.

And the winner is.........

Drum roll please.............






The lovely Katherine at Chatiry World is the winner, a tea cup and saucer cushion will be winging it's way to you this week, can you send me your details please?


Right, off to walk the dog and let the chooks out, will be back later with tales of our trip to Orkney.


Bye for now.


L x

The month that was February!

Well, February has been and gone and we're well into March now.......where has the time gone? It was a busy month, so much happened........

I met up with this lovely lady for a day in Glasgow, we had great fun shopping for fabric and trimmings, I took her to VV Roleaux.......need I say any more!

I received this amazing gift in the post, not only is she a great friend she's a very talented lady - could you whizz up one of these in a weekend?

A friend recommended her hairdresser at Christmas time when I commented on how lovely her hair was, so I went and got a new hair cut, 5" off as I hadn't had it cut for over a year, very drastic but I'm now getting used to it. I'm not a fan of going to the hairdressers but I think I'll go back again...!

The reason behind the hair cut was because we were going to a christening here and a wedding here, a post about this will follow as I've got so much to tell you all about it!

It was a busy month with work too, lots of sewing for Valentines orders and lots of shop orders winging their way out of the workroom.

We've also been busy with the studio - what do you think so far then?

Ooh and it was also my birthday on March 1st, my mum and my two sisters came and visited for the day and then we had friends round for supper. Gregg cooked, Greek lamb with lemons and feta, I made pud, marmalade ice cream and chocolate brownies - good food and good company, what more could a girl want?!

So, now that I'm back out of hibernation I shall do the cushion draw tonight and post the winner tomorrow.

See you all then!

L x

P.S. Hope you like the spring cleaned look of the blog!

Keeping out of trouble....

....yet I feel a little bit naughty, only 4 posts in January, that's a bit slack isn't it? Well, all I can say is that I've been a very busy girl, even though I have really struggled with the January blues.

Last week saw some new designs coming out of the workroom,
and a stack of lavender hearts and bundles, can you tell Valentines Day is just around the corner?! I also managed to buy some lovely new fabrics that I'm enjoying being creative with, so keep an eye out here for new things arriving soon.I also popped down to Glasgow on Sunday to the Scottish Trade Fair. I'd been a couple of years back, and to be honest it was pretty rubbish, so I was glad to see a huge improvement this year and felt it was well worth the visit I'd paid.

I've also been busy planning for this, which I'm getting really excited about. The roof is hopefully going on the studio this weekend so I'll post some photos next week.

Seeing as this is my 100th post ( I know, it's taken me ages to get here!!!) I thought I'd do a little giveaway, the lucky winner can choose one of the above cushions. So either leave a comment or drop me an e-mail (info@primrosehillinteriors.com) and your name will be added to the draw.

Good luck!

L xx

Fun in the snow

Friday's fun in the snow was make or break day. I had to decide whether to stick with snowboarding, give it up and try skiing again (I've not been on skis since I was a teenager) or just give up the whole snowsports thing, because constantly snowballing down a hill just isn't my idea of fun....

So, what was it to be then? You can probably tell from the smile.........

I'm sticking with the snowboarding, I was pretty much linking my turns ( where you turn the board from edge to edge in order to snake down the hill) by the end of the most amazing day I've ever had on the slopes. You see, for those of you that aren't into this mad sport where you throw yourself down a hill strapped to a very slidy board, it's not easy. I have struggled with it for years, and only getting a smattering of days a year at it probably doesn't help. It looks really simple when you see others doing it, but building up the confidence to point the board straight down the hill in order to turn from side to side is not for the faint hearted. Physically having to lean your body down the hill, rather than naturally lean back into the hill is a tricky thing to get your head round, but I'm getting there....

On Friday, I had my determined head on, took loads of snowball like tumbles, but came up smiling every time, more and more determined to crack it. There were no tears ( a first for me ) but lots of bruises, and I have to say the impact shorts and wrist guards are worth their weight in gold. If there's anyone reading this and thinking about taking up the mad mountain sport I would thoroughly recommend you buy yourself some.

We had a perfect day of blue sky weather, amazing snow conditions, and we spotted loads of wildlife, Snow Buntings, Black Grouse, stags and white mountain hares. It made me realise why I truely love living up here, to have all of this on our doorstep really is quite breathtaking, lets just hope it lasts......

On the sewing front, I'm busy getting orders finished that weren't essential for Christmas, making up samples for the new Spring collection and off to visit a new stockist tomorrow. So it's a busy week, but we'll maybe try and squeeze in a bit more snowboarding if the weather's good.....

L xx

A fab weekend

Well, we're onto the last push this week, it's more mad sewing for our Open Day this Saturday (all welcome if you're in the area). We had a fab time at The Green Gallery Fair this weekend, we were beside some lovely stalls in the conservatory, it always helps when you've got nice "neighbours" at these things.

I love the fact that quite a lot of bartering goes on between the stall holders, I did swaps with Emma of Pumpkin Sputnik who was next to me, she makes the most fabulous stationery, have a look at her site. We're hopefully going to work on a project together some time next year.......

We were also kept well fed and constantly tempted by The Cookroom, the most delicious range of cakes, all gluten and wheatfree. The Fair was their first weekend of trading so I really hope they do well in the future.

I also got to meet the lovely Jane Keith, the sister of my friend Sara Keith, both extremely talented textile artists. Jane was there with her fabulous range of hand printed and painted silk ties, I think we're planning on doing swaps too, she loves our dotty aprons and is getting one of our dotty door stops for her Christmas..........!

Right, must get on, loads to do this week, plus the house looks like a bomb has hit it, so a fair bit of tidying will be required before Saturday.........!

Bye for now,

L xx

P.S. the pictures are of Katies gorgeous felt jewellery, it flew off the stall this weekend. x

All work and no play.....

This week has been a bit mad, the fair on Monday and Tuesday went really well, which to be honest I was really quite surprised at. I had felt previously that it had been more of a "social" fair where people go to catch up rather than shop. But this year we did really well, hence the reason this has been a bit of a mad week, no stock left! So amid a mad flurry of sewing, we've also been trying to get the web site updated (always late doing that, one of these years I might actually get organised and be updated with xmas goodies by October, but to me that would just be boring, I much prefer to fly by the seat of my pants!). Plus, other than wanting to get the shop updated before December is upon us, we've also got a lovely little article in The Scottish Farmer about us this week, so by midnight last night my head was spinning slightly!

So, this afternoon I'm heading down the road to Buchlyvie to The Green Gallery for their annual Christmas Fair this weekend, one I always enjoy as there are always so many familiar faces, given that the area used to be home. It's my last fair for the season other than our open house next weekend, and boy am I looking forward to getting home on Sunday night, I'm pooped!

Off to get on with some last minute sewing, label printing and packing my bag, roll on Sunday night, a big hug from Gregg and a log fire to come home to!

Enjoy your weekend,

L xx

A few photos....

I'm absolutely pooped! Not long home from another fair, a big one in Perth that was on tonight and all day tomorrow - if you're in the area do pop along to say hello, there are some lovely stalls there........

The fairs are all going well, some better than others, but that always tends to be the case in this game, you can just never tell...... I should really be going to do some sewing now as we've sold out of a few products tonight, it's very heartening to see that it's the handmade goodies that are selling out, it makes all the hard work worthwhile!

Seeing as I've not shown you any photos of the studio build for a while I thought I'd post a few tonight, it's really coming on.......

The roof trusses inside, it's going to be open plan to make it feel nice and airy....

The sarking boards going on the roof......

At the end of this weekends work, roof water tight, the back wall clad and the side wall started.......

A rather blurry photo of Gregg on the roof playing with his favourite toy, the nailgun.......!

Right, I suppose I'd better go and get a bit of sewing done before I go to bed, it's going to be a long week I think!

Night, night,

L xx

Progress

Just a quick update with the progress of the studio, it's coming on, as you can see......

We have decided that we're probably not going to get it completed for a Christmas opening, which is a shame, but we'd rather not rush it just for the sake of being open for a couple of weeks, plus the weather is bound to turn sooner or later...............!

So, I've started making plans for the grand opening next year, probably even more exciting than a Christmas opening actually, but more about that in the new year.

Julia, you mentioned in your comment about having a wood burning stove in the studio, well funnily enough that's exactly what I was thinking!! It's all dependent upon space as it is a bit of a luxury and there are certain things that I must fit into the studio, but hopefully we'll be able to squeeze one in somewhere. It would just be rude not to have a stove for Chrissie to lie in front of now wouldn't it!!

Tonight is a tagging and organising of stock evening, the first Christmas fair is this Friday at Letham Grange Hotel, from 10am - 4pm, so if you're in the area do pop in and say hello. I've been sewing like a mad woman for the last few weeks now, so hopefully I'll have enough stock made. We set up tomorrow evening so I'll take some photos and try and remember to post them!

Anyway, better get on, loads to do tonight. I promise I'll come and visit you all very soon.

L x

P.S. Blogger was playing up so I've only just managed to load up the photos after umpteen attempts last night - it seems to be behaving a little bit better this morning! x

Birthday wishes

It's the first of October already and Autumn is really with us now. We've had a few nippy frosts but amazingly the garden is still in flower. I'm loving the changing colours that are slowly starting to emerge, showing signs of the garden going into hibernation until next year.

Today was a special day for a couple of reasons. It's my little brothers birthday today, although he's no longer little! Twenty years old today and a good 6ft 4", he more than towers over me!

It's also the 4th Birthday of Primrose Hill Interiors. I can still remember my business adviser telling me to pick a date and work towards it - so I did. I'd spent the whole summer working on the first collection and getting all the "business stuff" done. By that Christmas we were supplying our first outlet, The Fotheringham Gallery, and I was selling work. At last I'd made it, I was my own boss!

So it's quite fitting that now, four years on, we are in the midst of creating a studio for me to work in. I will at last have "somewhere to go to work"!!! It's all too easy to get distracted while working from the spare room, washing to hang out, a bit of tidying to do, you know how it is, and I do struggle at times! I'm soooo looking forward to packing up my little lunch basket and tootling across the drive to my little studio, where I can be creative all day and turn a blind eye to the chaos that resides in the cottage!



A little corner of the studio will also allow me to "play" shopkeeper!, this is the bit I'm most looking forward to....... Being able to go back to the roots of my degree and really get creative, oooh I'm so excited, can you tell?

So, in between sewing, I've been holding bits of wood for Gregg, and at the end of day three we now have the floor joists down and the back wall frame built, not bad huh? ( the photo shows the end of day two).


I'll keep you posted on the progress!

L x

Busy bee

It's been a busy old week this week, trying to wade through a HUGE order for a shop in Portree - I'll be glad when it's finished!

A little sandy beach on Eriskay looking over to S. Uist.

The gang at the hostel.

The hostel at Howmore.

Here's some more photos from the Uists, we camped for three nights at the hostel at Howmore. A great little place with a lovely atmosphere, we met up with some super people there, with whom we shared evenings of flying the kite on the beach, fishing and playing scrabble - great fun. The days were spent looking for otters (which we saw), listening to Corncrakes and dotting around the islands looking at various artists work during the arts festival, just my cup of tea!

A gorgeous little croft house.

Wild orchids.

Otter watching.

Unfortunately it's gotten to that time of year again when the "C" word (Christmas!) is being banded around the house like it's just around the corner, not something that I particlurly enjoy, seeing as the sun is shining and it is actually quite warm outside! Hey ho, the joys of being wrapped up in the world of retail...............(ha ha!)

Enjoy your weekend.

L x

P.S. Thank you to the lovely ladies Marie and Tracy for the awards, will post about them next week.